Wheel.



PATENTED APR. 16, 1907. J. w. HILL.

WHEEL.

APYLIUATION FILED 331%; 10, 1N8.

UNITED STATES JOHN W. HILL, or MONCLOVIi ECKENRODE, OF MAUMEE, OHIO,

OHnTASiGNOR F ONE-FIFTH TO s. J. ONE-FIFTH TO n s. STAPLETON, or

.PATENT oE IoE.

ToE. L. JOHNSON, oE' oL'EDo, OHIO.

WHEEL.-

specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 16, 1907.

Application filed September 10, 1906. Serial No. 834.046.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN W. HILL, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of Monclova, in the count of Lucas and State of Ohio, haveinvente a certain new and useful Wheel; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, :clear, and exact description of theinvention,such as will en- '15 and is particularly designed for use on auto,-

mobiles or the like, but may be used in connection with all otherclasses of vehicles to which it might be adapted or ap ropriat'e.

' The object of my invention is t e rovision of a vehicle-wheel ofimprovedires' ient construction whereby it is adaptedto absorb' both thejar or jerking action incident to the sudden starting or stopping of thevehicle and the jar or vibration occasioned'by the 2 5 running surfaces.y

A further object of my invention is the provisionof a wheel the hub of.which and the weight of the vehicle are resiliently sus- -3o pended fromthe rim thereof instead of being sup orted thereby, as is usual withwheels of t .e type having spring-spokes,

The operation, construction, and arrangement of the parts of myinvention are fully 3 5 described in the following specification and oneembodiment thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-Figure 1 is a side elevation of awheel embodyingmiy invention, with aportion of the 0 hub broken away and three of the spokes released fromtheurirn. Fig. 2 is a sunilar enlarged view of the hub, illustrating.the action of the spokes relative to each other and the hub when asudden stress is applied to the latter in the direction of the arrow;and

Fig. 3 is a cross-section of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the hub, w ich mayvbe of anysuitable construction, 2 he rim, which may either be ro- 5ovided withametal tread or shaped to a apt it to receive a pneumatic or other kindof tire, as may be desired, and 3 the spokes of a wheeLcomprisingmyinvention.

of the vehicle 'over rough or uneven sufliclent distance'wlthlnthe hubto give it The spokes 3 are formed of spring metal and bowed, as at 4,or otherwlse suitably bent or formed to adapt them to be longltudinallyresilient under stress. These spokes have, their inner ends pivotallysecured by bolts or headed pins 5 within the annularl -channeled orspoke-receiving ortion 6 o the hub and their outer ends pivotallysecured by pins orrivets 7 to plates 8 in direct radial alinement withthe-points of securance of their inner ends to the hub, said plates-'8being attached by bolts or rivets 9 to the inner annular flange 10 ofthe rim, or the spokes may, be attached to the rim in any other suitablemanner.- The normal suc that when their inner ends are secured to thehub their outer ends fall short 'of the points to'which they areintended to be secured, as shown in Fi '1, thus re uiring theapplication of tens' e stress jt ereto to lengthen them against theirtension sufliciently to enable'suchfouter endsto be attached tothe rimz.h I

' The .spokes 3 have their inner ends set a the desired lateral strengthand are formed j ecting shoulders I 1, each of which is adapted to abutthe contiguous shoulder of the next spoke when the-spokes are in normalposition relative to the hub, as shown in Fig. 1. In order torenderossible a slight rotar movement of the hu relative to the spo es andconnected rim, the shoulders 1 -1 terminate side shaped to describe thearc of a circle having the pivot 5 of the conti -uous spoke as its asthey are oscillated in the same direction in unison as a-sudden stressis applied; to the hub in the o posite direction, as illustrated in Fig.2. l'lhile this construction of the s oke ends is preferable, I wish itunderstood that I do not restrict myself to its use, as its purpose isonlyto close the space between the spokes at the rim of the hub.

With this construction of wheel it is apparent that each spoke has atendency to the huband the weight carried thereby to be length of thespokewhen free from stress is draw thefrim toward the hub, thuscausingadjacent such ends with theoppositely-prosubstantially in points,and eachfhas its inner axis, or substantially so, t us' adapting oneshoulder of each spoke to pass under the 'contiguous shoulder of thenext succeeding spoke resiliently suspended from the upper portion ofthe rim, While the tension on the lower spokes is released proportional"to the increase of the tension on the opposite spokes. This is also thecase when the wheel strikes an obstruction in its path of movement, as

' the jar which would otherwise be'communia resilient turning movementrelative to the wheel-r1111 proportional to the stress apphed .orresistance encountered, thus causing the.

almost entirely eliminated, as the manner of mounting .thespokes'permits the hub to have starting or stopping to lose itsabruptness or violence on the spokes before being communicated to thehuband vehicle carried thereby. It would be impossible to obtain thisaction of the wheel Wereit not for the fact that the huband rim exert atensile stress upon the spokes, thus tending to resist any rotarymovement of one of said parts relative to the other.

7 It has been found with my construction of Wheel that not only the jarandvibration in cident to the running of vehicles over rough or unevensurfaces, but also the jerking ordinarily communicated to a vehicle by aand den starting or stopping thereof, are reduced to a minimum and thata. Wheel equipped With a metal tread will run as smoothly and free fromjar as the ordinary wheel equipped with a pneumatic tire.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letl ters Patent, is-

1. A-wheel having spring-metal spokes each pivotally attached. to thehub and rim at radially-alining points and bowed in the plane of the rimadjacent their outer ends.

2. A wheel having curved spring-spokes applied thereto under an initialtension and having their opposite ends pivotally attached in directradial alinement to the hub and rim.

1 3. A wheel having its spokes longitudi na'lly resilient and pivoted attheir ends in direct radial alinement to the rim and hub to permit aresilient rotary movement of the hub in either direction relative to'therim.

4. A 'wheel having curved spring-metal spokes the ends of which arepivoted in radial alineme'nt to the hub and rim and having their-hubends formed contiguous to the hub v periphery with opposite shoulderswhich nor-v mally abutthe shoulders of the spoke, but turn-,past' eachother when the hub has'a turning movement in either direction relativeto the rim.

, 5. A wheel having bowed spring-metal spokes pivoted to the rim and huband 101'- mally niaintained' in an expanded state thereby, and havingtheir hub ends for-med with shoulders which normally -abut, but

turn past each other when the hubhas a turning movement relative to therun.

6. A Wheel having its hub peripherally channeled and spring-metal spokeshaving their inner ends mounted in contiguous position within suchchannel-and pivoted to the hub and their outer ends pivoted to the. rim

in radial alinem ent with their inner ends, said spokes being bowedintennediate their ends.- In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed myname to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnessesJOHN W. HILL.

ii itnesses E. L. Jonnsox, C. W. CLmnr.

